About Me

When not nosing, tasting, drinking and reading about malt whisky, I own one of Israel's premiere boutique coaching practices, specializing in small businesses and executive teams.
Trained in the law, I was an international law attorney and took part in Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as representing my country at the UN for parts of the negotiations on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Later I was appointed to the military bench.
My favorite thing, other than whisky, is teaching.
You can contact me through the social media buttons above or by email: michael(at)maltandoak.com, replacing the (at) with an @.

Statement of Integrity and Guidelines

Malt and Oak is an independent whisky blog, offering my own views, opinions and news from the world of malt whisky.
These are my guidelines:

1. All whisky reviews published are of whiskies I have personally tasted and noted. Guest bloggers only write about their own personal tastings.

2. With the exception of official whisky samples, I accept no consideration whatsoever from any distillery, bottler, distributor, drink company or store for my opinions.

3. I maintain strict impartiality and objectivity in tasting all whiskies, not least when tasting official samples. Any review of official whisky samples sent to me will be so noted in the post.

4. I will accept invitations to tastings, events and official visits, and full disclosure will be made on any tasting notes and articles resulting from these events or visits.

5. Any sample received over 30 ml in volume is shared with fellow whisky bloggers. In any event, no sample larger than 100 ml will be accepted.

6. No advertisements promoting specific brands will be accepted.

7. I will answer any inquiry by my readers as quickly and as fully as possible.

8. Should I give a link purchase the reviewed whisky, it will be given free of any commercial interest. The link given will always point to cheapest selling price I found on the web. No commission is paid, nor any other consideration given, for such link.

9. As of July 2017, I serve as Douglas Laing’s Israel brand ambassasdor. As such, I will obviously not be posting reviews of Douglas Laing products.

Ledaig 15 Pre 2007 (43%) – Whisky Review

Ledaig is the brand name for the peated whisky produced by the Tobermory distillery on Mull. The distillery is not one with a very large number of core expressions. In fact, each of the two brands only have two core expressions. Tobermory has the 10 year old and the (excellent) 15 year old, and Ledaig has the 10 year old and the very new (and one I have not yet tasted) 18 year old with an Oloroso finish. Additionally, two 42 year old editions were released in the past year – a Ledaig and a Tobermory, to celebrate the replacement of the stills in the distillery, which were installed in 1972, with the liquid in both bottles coming from the first distillations performed in the new stills. I have tasted the 42 year old Tobermory, and plan on getting hold of a sample of the Ledaig too.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

Tobermory has been inactive for long periods during its history. After being founded in 1798 by John Sinclair, the distillery was closed for 88 years, first from 1837 to 1878 then from 1930 to 1972 and at last from 1982 through 1989. But the distillery survived prohibition and the whisky loch, and emerged as a strong member of the Burn Stewart trinity led by Ian Macmillan. The current production is divided 50/50 between the peated Ledaig and the unpeated Tobermory.